Ridley's Believe It Or Not--This Day In History

Sunday, April 25, 2021

April 25, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Parent Alienation Awareness Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not April 25, 2021

CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over 146 million at 146,972,105 cases (146,225,032 yesterday), 19,294,415 of which are active, 127,677,290 closed with 124,567,087 recoveries (97.56% and 97.56% yesterday ,and 3,110,603 deaths (2.44% and 2.44% yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises (have no idea why the comparatively large improvement in deaths and recoveries yesterday).
CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 32 million at 32,780,457 (32,735,074 yesterday) with 6,860,726 active cases of which 9,769 (9,832 yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now reduced to .14% of active cases and now still back on a decreasing path of the number of serious or critical cases to once again increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 19,502, 25,919,731 closed, with 585,773 deaths (2.26% and 2.26% yesterday) and with 25,333,958 recoveries (97.74% and 97.74% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is still .18% lower than the world rate after the world’s spike in improvement and now .04% higher than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here but has approved 4 vaccines as opposed to our 3, one of which J&J is on hold.
Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1761 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge surge in deaths (2741), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2292), Belgium (2060), Italy (1971), UK (1869) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), and Brazil (1822) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1770), Poland (1725), Portugal (1667), Spain (1659), Mexico (1650), France (1571), Sweden (1372) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in deaths, Argentina (1344), Chile (1337), Switzerland (1214) and Bolivia (1083).
Tests: We have now conducted 438,353,248 tests (now at 1,318,061/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,134,199/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,181,710/M.
CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which is 12^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1650/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported:

                   Guatemala:  Activecases:     18,110     Deaths/M407
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   123,742     Deaths/M508
           El Salvador:   Active cases:      1,960    Deaths/M 323

US Vaccinations: As of 4/25/2021 228.7 million doses have been given, 2.75 million per day in the last week (sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now reduced to some 3 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 28,798,648 total doses have been given (79.8% of doses received to exceed the U.S. average of 78.7%), but even with the pressure of a certain recall coming endangering Newsom, California has fallen from 23^rd to tied with Illinois at 24^th  out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 28.4% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 28.5% is stuck at 32^nd . A long way to go to get herd immunity and lagging in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and percentage of population vaccinated compared to other states and a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
    Non CV News: Where’s Waldo claiming the border crisis is complex and will take time to resolve to justify her refusal to go to the border citing CV issues (she is vaccinated and like Biden is usually no matter how alone she might be wearing a mask—looks like she doesn’t want to tarred with the open border failure); MSM may lie continually on the border issue but by a vote of 46-15% Americans feel the situation at the border has gotten worse under Biden; Chauvin’s medical expert previously the State Medical Examiner in Maryland is now going to have his reports reviewed after a letter signed by over 400 doctors questioned his testimony on the cause of Floyd’s death; Fauci whose idiocy decimated restaurants who expended substantial funds to create outdoor dining with social distancing to survive and were forced to closed due to CDC guidelines has now seen the light and stated that CV infection in outdoor settings is miniscule (finally rectifying an error that sent many businesses into bankruptcy and closure); hypocrisy rules and parents and school children drool as the Chandler School District cancelled the school prom due to CV concerns yet saw fit to hold a large retirement party for its school superintendent.
    The Oscars are going on in L.A.’s Union Central Station with attendees limited to 170 and mask less with no host and wondering how low the drop in ratings will continue to drop (after listening to the elite with their gated communities and armed guards with no need for police and way too much anti-police over the top rhetoric, the safe bet is viewers will flee the Awards Ceremony and hopefully start boycotting the movies stop filling the pockets of the leftist biased elite); for those thinking to walk on Mars the first time thanks to SpaceX, Elon Musk has given a chilling prediction—people will die and the quarters will be cramped and the food not good on the pioneer trip to Mars; in a who needs Brady moment Rob Gronkowski who played football at Arizona, caught after 2 tries, a football dropped from 600 feet before the Wildcats annual spring scrimmage game; James O’Keefe founder of Veritas, after being banned by Jack Dorsey’s Twitter, is in the process of suing CNN and Twitter—nothing like a multimillion  dollar judgment to shed Twitter’s biased algorithms  and force CNN to cease its fake news; forget about we will pay your sales tax promos, a Wyoming roofing company has the best inducement to buy a new roof—a new Ar-15. In 1993 the Reptilian Brain-in-Chief invited Epstein and Maxwell to the White House after Epstein had donated funds to renovate the Oval Office.
Backers of a recall effort for L.A. DA Gascon have formally started the process and have started the 160 day clock to obtain 580,000 signatures of registered voters to place a recall on the ballot https://recallgeorgegascon.com/; as the dust settles across this land following riots and the mustering of the National Guard to try to prevent them leave it to the political cartoonist to exposed the true feelings Blues have for the forces of law and order:

  Chicago Gun Violence: HeyJackass.com is back to show that through April 24, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 986 persons shot of whom 178 have died.
  As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “TSOP (the Sound of Philadelphia) by MFSB and The Three Degrees, the need to redintegrate the American Dream and a quote by Thomas Edison on solar energy, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Mother’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
1. Parent Alienation Awareness Day—founded by Canadian activist Sarvy Emo and first observed on this day in 2006 to bring awareness to the tragic collateral damage arising out of divorces with children involved where the custodial parent 24/7 tries to alienate the noncustodial parent from the children with damaging effects to the children.
   2.  World Malaria Day—created by the World Health Organization in 2007 to promote awareness of the disease and education on how to treat and curtail its spread.
  3.  1974 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1974 was “TSOP (the Sound of Philadelphia)” MFSB and The Three Degrees on a run of 2 weeks in that position to join 34 other songs reaching number 1 in a year in which 25 groups had their first number 1 song.  Here is a recording by MFSB and The Three Degrees of “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z0QE44smfo   MSSB standing for “Mother, Father, Sister and Brother” was a group of 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios and the song TSOP was instrumental in creating the disco fever and success.
4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “redintegrate” which means “resuscitate or restore” our prosperity before it is damaged by Biden policies beyond repair.
  5.  Still Ticking—celebrating the birth on this day in 1940 of noted actor and director Al Pacino who has been on the big screen since 1969 and is still going strong today.    On this day in
a. 1901 true to government’s belief that if it moves, “tax it,” New York became the first state to require license plates on cars.
b. 1954 the first practical solar cell was demonstrated by Bell Laboratories.
c. 1959 The Saint Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean was officially opened to shipping.
d. 1961 Robert Noyce was granted a patent for the integrated circuit.
e. 1988 John Demjanjuk after being deport from the United States to Israel was sentenced to death for his role as a concentration camp guard which was ultimately overturned permitting him to return to the United States in 1993 where he was deported once again to Germany in 2009 to face trial for killing prisoners at another concentration camp, tried and convicted and sentenced to 5 years on May 12,2011 but was staying in a nursing home pending his appeal and died before a verdict was handed down on March 17, 2012 at the age of 91.

Reflections on solar cells: “We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy – sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” Thomas Edison
Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet, and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© April 25, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

April 24, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Fashion Revolution Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not April 24, 2021

                   Guatemala:  Active cases:     18,110     Deaths/M 407
                   Honduras:     Active cases:   123,070     Deaths/M 508
           El Salvador:   Active cases:      1,880     Deaths/M 322

US Vaccinations: As of 4/25/2021 225.6 million doses have been given, 2.82 million per day in the last week (sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now reduced to some 3 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 28,302,062 total doses have been given (78.4% of doses received to exceed the U.S. average of 77.6%), but even with the pressure of a certain recall coming endangering Newsom, California has risen from 25^th to 23rd   out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 27.8% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 28.0% has risen from 33^rd to 32^nd .  A long way to go to get herd immunity and lagging in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and percentage of population vaccinated compared to other states and a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
Non CV News: Even the most rabid Blue believes that the young unaccompanied minors even if citizens are too young to vote so why is the rag book published by Harris given out them while in detention  (this lying equals the means ideologue claims she had no idea the book was being given out to read); Where’s Waldo still not having met the press is even not prepared to go anywhere near the border even flying over it to meet with Mexico’s President but will hold a virtual conference to discuss the root causes on of which is so easy to see and right before her eyes—an open border and handcuffs of deportation; Elvis had a hit record “Blue Suede Shoes” but Biden and his IRS minions are playing a new record Blue Suede Slow Walking Shoes in the disbursement of the $1400  stimulus checks as a Side B to Newsom’s long running hit Blue Suede EDD Crashing Unemployment Checks Shoes; Red Oklahoma State Senator Nathan cracked an non PC joke involving plastic straws and Biden’s and Harris’ abilities and has told PC critics in essence to pound sand; Mad Maxine still in spike land ecstasy over Chauvin’s conviction had the audacity to attack the Chauvin Trial Judge for having the temerity to chastise her for her jury intimidation remarks (if the Pelosi Puppet Blues had a shred of spine, they would have voted on her censure resolution which a safe bet would be that enough Blues would have voted “yes”.
  It’s all in the name as the White House changes Where’s Waldo‘s husband’s first name from Doug to Douglas to make him appear more serious (new flash Waldo it’s your and Biden’s policies that are key not your first names); in another example of the left’s total intolerance for any ideas they think do not follow lock, stock and barrel their leftist dogma, Professor Andrew Donadio of Texas Tech and a faculty adviser for a conservative student group Turning Point has been met with a barrage of leaflets on campus distributed by 2 colleagues, Julia Gruber and Andrew Smith, blasting him for all manner of sins, racism and hate speech; Biden who took forever to call the border situation a crisis at least has come out and called a spade a spade and condemned the Ottoman Empire’s genocide of Armenians in World War I; the Indonesian submarine missing off the coast of Bali is now believed to have sunk and with all oxygen  now gone the crew of 53 should be presumed dead; 7 deputies in Pasquotank County, North Carolina have been put on administrative leave after shooting a black who tried to flee in his car after deputies tried to serve an arrest warrant for felony drug charges.
   Backers of a recall effort for L.A. DA Gascon have formally started the process and have started the 160 day clock to obtain 580,000 signatures of registered voters to place a recall on the ballot https://recallgeorgegascon.com/; as the dust settles across this land following riots and the mustering of the National Guard to try to prevent them  leave it to the political cartoonist to exposed the true feelings Blues have for the forces of law and order:

Chicago Gun Violence: HeyJackass.com is back to show that through April 23, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 970 persons shot of whom 177 have died.
As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Tie a Yellow Ribbon to the Ole Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn, that online shopping is so much easier since you can enjoy redhibition and a quote by Elizabeth Joy on the Fashion Revolution, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Mother’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
   1. National Day for Laboratory Animals—created by the National Anti-Vivisection Society on this day in 1979 UNESCO and first celebrated of April 23, 1995 to promote the end of using animals in research which almost too often results in their death—tough to balance concern for animals and the fact that without animal trials many life-saving drugs would not make it to the human market.
        2.  Fashion Revolution Day—first celebrated on this day in 2014 the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh that caused the death of 1133 garment workers and injured over 2500 to promote the end of exploitation of low paid garment workers in developing countries.
3.  1973 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1973 was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” by Dawn feat. Tony Orlando on a run of 4 weeks in that position to join 20 other songs reaching number 1 in a year in which 14 groups had their first number 1 song including Jim Croce who achieved his posthumously as the third artist to accomplish that fact.  Here is a recording by Dawn feat. Tony Orlando of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGBw4pmR5ro Orlando has been performing since 1959 and after the band Dawn and Tony Orlando, he weathered a bout of cocaine addiction but is still performing at the ripe old age of 77.
       4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “redhibition” which means return of a defective product and cancellation of a sale which the FTA and policies like Amazon have made a consumer no longer in most cases to heed caveat emptor.
  5.  One Letter Short—celebrating the birth on this day in 1940  of popular noted mystery/crime novelist Sue Grafton with the exploits of female private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California the thrilled millions of readers with her alphabet series from A Is For Alibi to  Y Is For Yesterday, her last novel published on August 22, 2017 before her death on December 2017 from appendix cancer deprived her fans being able to read the Z Is For ___  she intended to write.   On this day in   a.  1918 in a preview of the nature of war in World War II at the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in the first tank to tank battle in history 3 British tanks engaged 3 German tanks after the British lost 2 tanks and the Germans 1, the 2 German tanks retreated pursued by the British tank which was destroyed by artillery fire.
b.  1957 after the introduction of UN Peacekeeping forces the Suez Canal which had been closed due to the 1956 Egypt Israel War in France and Britain had participated with little success, the Suez Canal was reopened to traffic.
  c.  1967 General Westmorland held a press conference where he claimed the Viet Cong and NVA thought they could win due to the ant-war movement in the U.S.
  d. 1980 in a moment that typified the weakening of the U.S. military following the end of the Vietnam War, 8 servicemen died in the Iranian Desert in Operation Eagle Claw designed to rescue our hostages seized in the takeover of our embassy in Tehran.
  e. 1996 Congress passed with broad bipartisan support the Anti-Terrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 following the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing.
        Reflections on the Fashion Revolution: “Ethical fashion is the recognition that there are human beings behind the clothes that we wear.” – Elizabeth Joy, founder of Conscious Life and Style
             Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter   account below (if you like them, retweet, and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History,  poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to  Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© April 24, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

Saturday, April 24, 2021

April 23, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World Book Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not April 23, 2021

CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over 146 million at 146,225,032 cases (145,171,844 yesterday), 198,108,265 of which are active, 127,116,767 closed with 124,017,474 recoveries (97.56% and 97.56% yesterday ,and 3,099,293 deaths (2.44% and 2.44% yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises (have no idea why the comparatively large improvement in deaths and recoveries yesterday).

CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 32 million at 32,735,074 (32,652,065 yesterday) with 6,854,582 active cases of which 9,832 (9,964 yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now reduced to .14% of active cases and now hopefully back on a decreasing path of the number of serious or critical cases to once again increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 19,439, 25,881,122 closed, with 585,075 deaths (2.26% and 2.26% yesterday) and with 25,296,047 recoveries (97.74% and 97.74% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is still .18% lower than the world rate after the world’s spike in improvement and now .04% higher than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here but has approved 4 vaccines as opposed to our 3, one of which J&J is on hold.

Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1758 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge surge in deaths (2719), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2292), Belgium (2056), Italy (1966), UK (1869) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), and Brazil (1808) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1770), Poland (1711), Portugal (1667), Spain (1659), Mexico (1650), France (1567), Sweden (1372) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in deaths, Argentina (1344), Chile (1332), Switzerland (1214) and Bolivia (1081).

Tests: We have now conducted 437,068,081 tests (now at 1,314,196/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,129,011/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,163,097/M.
CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which is 12^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1650/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported:

                   Guatemala:  Active cases:     17,451     Deaths/M 406
                   Honduras:     Active cases:   122,350     Deaths/M 503
           El Salvador:   Active cases:      1,885     Deaths/M 321

US Vaccinations: As of 4/23/2021 222.3 million doses have been given, 2.86 million per day in the last week (sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now reduced to some 3 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 27,727,113 total doses have been given (78.1% of doses received to exceed the U.S. average of 77.6%), but even with the pressure of a certain recall coming endangering Newsom, California has dropped from 25^th in sole possession of 25^th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 27.0% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 27.5% has dropped from 32^nd to 33rd. A long way to go to get herd immunity and lagging in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and percentage of population vaccinated compared to other states and a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.

Non CV News: For Chauvin expecting to be sentenced in June, when it rains it pours as reports are out that the DOJ is looking to perhaps charge him for his response to a domestic violence call in 2017 when he held his knees on the teen suspect’s neck for 17 minutes; to the relief of various state health officials, the CDC has ruled the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can now continue to be injected into arms seeking vaccination; the Academy Awards Show will occur this Sunday at Union Station with attendance limited to 170 and the nominees appearing on camera not ratings; required to wear masks (more hypocrisy to damage their the show’s falling ratings; the FBI whose reputation was severely tarnished and damaged by Comey and the Russian Hoax took another hit as the paper that had received James Hodgkinson’s[mr1] numerous letters to the paper castigating Reds and their policies before he tried to kill Red members practicing for their annual Congressional Baseball Game over the years published them to defunct the FBI’s theory that this was a “suicide by cop”; in the Big Apple another example that when it comes to public safety, it is rotten to the core as Takim Newsom an arrested attempted released without bail after being stopped and questioned and asked to step out of the car due to suspicion of DUI marijuana to back up and snare the officer and drag him some distance before he shook free.

The founder of BLM who is quick to attack any violation by her of the legal system as racist attacks by Reds is under fire in California for her BLM Movement not filing reports required for a nonprofit in California; backers of a recall effort for L.A. DA Gascon have formally started the process and have started the 160 day clock to obtain 580,000 signatures of registered voters to place a recall on the ballot https://recallgeorgegascon.com/; after all the climate change rants we hear daily, leave it to the political cartoonist to point out the difficulty alarming for climate change when you may have in the future face as opposed to weather to face today:

Chicago Gun Violence: HeyJackass.com is back to show that through April 221, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 967 persons shot of whom 177 have died.
As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “The First Time I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, that when you rede someone that person follows and a quote by Philip Bunnel, a Columbia Student present at its takeover in 1968, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Mother’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for details on the pricing.

1. World Book Day—created by UNESCO and first celebrated of April 23, 1995 to promote reading, publishing and copyright.

2. UN English Language Day/ UN Spanish Language Day—a twofer created by the UN on this day in 2010 to promote multiculturalism and equal use of the 6 official languages of the UN—Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian.

              3. 1972 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1972 was “The First Time I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack on a run of 6 weeks in that position to join 21 other songs reaching number 1 and 17 other acts achieving their first number 1 song. Here is a recording by Roberta Flack of “The First Time I Saw Your Face”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqW-eO3jTVU Flack has been performing since 1968 and still is today with 13 Grammy nominations and 4 winners.
               4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “rede” means to counsel or advise and appropriately given World Book Day is pronounced the same as “read”.
               5.  War Can Be Fashionable—celebrating the birth on this day in 1907 of noted model, photographer and Vogue photojournalist during World War II who took some 60,000 photos of the carnage, Elizabeth Lee Miller, but who was a heavy smoker and drinker and died too early on July 21, 1977 at the age of 70 from cancer most likely lung cancer. Here are three of her photos with the one on the left being one of the more iconic photos depicting the horror of the Holocaust:

On this day in

a. 1914 the first MLB game was played at Wrigley Field then know as Weeghman Park.

b. 1940 a fire broke out at the Rhythm Club in Natchez, Mississippi due to the Spanish Moss hanging from the ceilings releasing methane gas from the insecticide use before the concert with the building packed with over 600 people and only one exit and one window not boarded up, resulting in 209 deaths including many members of the band playing and many injured. The fire ranks as the 4^th deadliest fires in our history.

c. 1953 William Oates, a journalist working for AP was jailed on this day in 1951 in Czechoslovakia and charged with spying and after a coerced confession was sentenced to 10 years in prison only to be released shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin on May 16, 1953.

d. 1968 students protesting the Vietnam War took over Columbia University’s Administration Building, shutting down the university.

e. 1985 in a “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” moment, Coca Cola changed its originally formula that went over like a lead balloon, causing it to revert to the original in 3 months.

Reflections on the Columbia University takeover by one there reflecting 40 years later: “I watched Spring ’68 from Hartley with my pacifist and proselytizing red-cross armband-wearing roommate. SDS leaders, and their commitment to Marx’s social conception of the Hegelian dialectic and Machiavellian tactics, victimized and deceived the thoughtful and well-intentioned opponents of the ludicrous war. Some overzealous cops responded with irrational brutality. My nascent notions of altruism, humanism and nonviolence became an intractable and enduring philosophy, engendered by Spring ’68’s inimical and iniquitous display of enmity. I believe this philosophy has served me well.” Philip Bunnel ‘72
Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet, and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© April 23, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Gift

Friday, April 23, 2021

April 22, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Earth Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not April 22, 2021

CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over 144 million at 145,171,844 cases (144,431,869 yesterday), 18,896,227 of which are active, 126,275,617 closed with 123,195,712 recoveries (97.56% and 97.56% yesterday and 3,080,445 deaths (2.44% and 2.44% yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises (have no idea why the comparatively large improvement in deaths and recoveries yesterday).
CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 32 million at 32,652,065 (32,602,051 yesterday) with 6,846,055 active cases of which 9,964 (10,009 yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (still at .15% of active cases and now hopefully back on a decreasing path of the number of serious or critical cases  to once again increase the reduction from the  29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 19,307, 25,806,010 closed, with 583,987 deaths (2.26% and 2.26% yesterday) and with 25,222,023 recoveries (97.74% and 97.74% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .18% lower than the world rate after the world’s spike in improvement  and now .03% higher than Canada which has the socialized type medicine Biden may well want to implement here but has approved 4 vaccines as opposed to our 3, one of which J&J is on hold.
Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1756 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge surge in deaths (2697), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2261), Belgium (2052), Italy (1960), UK (1868) which had passed us despite leading world in testing), and Brazil (1785) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1747), Poland (1697), Portugal (1666), Spain (1657),  Mexico (1643),  France (1562),  Sweden (1368) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths, Argentina (1320), Chile (1326), Switzerland (1212) and Bolivia (1079).
Tests: We have now conducted 435,080,425 tests (now at 1,308,261/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,123,544/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,142,252/M.
  CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which is 12^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1643/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported:

                   Guatemala:  Active cases:     15,707     Deaths/M 402
                   Honduras:     Active cases:   121,358     Deaths/M 497
           El Salvador:   Active cases:      1,844     Deaths/M 321

   US Vaccinations: As of 4/22/2021 219 million doses have been given, 2.95 million per day in the last week (sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now reduced to some 3 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 27,384,986 total doses have been given (78.1% of doses received to  exceed the U.S. average of 77.6%), but even with the pressure of a certain recall coming endangering Newsom, California has dropped  from 24^th tied with Oregon to in sole possession of 25^th  out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 26.6% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 26.9% has increased slightly up from 33^rd to 32^nd.  A long way to go to get herd immunity and lagging in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and percentage of population vaccinated compared to other states and a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
  Non CV News: While leftists like Joy Behar even after seeing the videos, are inanely pontificating that the Columbus police officer should have shot into the air instead of killing Ma’Khia who her foster parent was claiming was a “loving girl” the cop’s body cam and a neighbor’s surveillance video clearly show her charging in to attack and the cop having a mere split second decision to shoot and prevent a death or not shoot and then as Ma’Khia continued to stab shoot and have two dead girls (he did the right thing and the MSM who are claiming an example of systematic racism do not belong on the air; the from the troika of see no evil the Lakers, the NBA and Lebron James’s sponsors the deafening sounds of silence over his deleted tweet of threatening revenge of the Columbus cop who took a life to save a life; the Cack News Network were in typical form giving a Columbus African American City Council Member a podium to pontificate having a social worker there would have prevented the shooting but staying silent and not asking her the basis for that inane opinion; the divide in the House reared its ugly reverse racist head when during the debate of the D.C. statehood bill, Blue Rep Mondaire Jones, an African American from New York accused Reds of opposing the bill because D.C. was not “white enough” ignoring the real reason that statehood would hand the Blues an in perpetuity 2 Senate seats ( the bill passed on strict party lines with not one Red voting in favor of it; in what looks like the fallacy of “give a mouse a cookie” to appease, the BLM activists have announced they are not leaving the new “autonomous zone” of George Floyd until after the verdicts in the 3 other officers charged in Floyd’s death and the city meets a list of 2 dozen demands (looks like a déjà vu of Seattle and jury intimidation of those unfortunate enough to have to sit on that jury).
  Biden looks like he is hell bent to kill the Golden Goose that has saved California’s potential CV induced collapse of tax revenues disaster due to capital gains from venture capital backed companies going public as he wants to raise the capital gains tax on the wealthy to 43.6% prompting as might be expected a loss of 321 on the Dow Jones today; Virginia strikes a blow under the guise of equity in education for blacks and foster stupidity by canceling advanced math classes prior to the 11^th grade (with public schools in abject failure mode for urban students why dumb down stem classes which is an area we need and lag behind the world?); in a rarity the Blue Mayor of Albany Kathy Sheehan supported he police in removing protestors creating an encampment in front of a police station as the removal process turned violent; BLM protestors stormed the Oklahoma State Capitol protesting Red bills granting some immunity for motorists fleeing a riot and increasing penalties for blocking traffic and one preventing police and their families from “doxing”; in a Where’s Waldo response Harris will not be visiting the border where she seems oblivious to the crisis there but at a leisurely pace will visit El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in June but she had time to inanely intone that climate change is the root cause of migration ( guess drug violence, cartels and corruption previously obvious choices don’t merit her hit list); biased pseudo “journalist” Paul Krugman for The New York Times needs to visit his optician to removing his blinding cataracts as he claims the BLM is the best behaved protest movement in history and the riots, burning and looting that this nation has had to endure are “make believe of the GOP”.

Backers of a recall effort for L.A. DA Gascon have formally started the process and have started the 160 day clock to obtain 580,000 signatures of registered voters to place a recall on the ballot https://recallgeorgegascon.com/; after the Chauvin verdict and its guilty on all counts in a few hours, leave it to the political cartoonist to point out the new normal facing whites in a systematic racist culture:

Chicago Gun Violence: HeyJackass.com is back to show to us that through April 21, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 952 persons shot of whom 174 have died.
  As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night, that you are quick to call out people for falsehoods and a quote by Beryl Hutchison, member of the First Aid Nurse Yeomanry following a gas attack, secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Mother’s Day, college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
  1. Earth Day—announced by Senator Gaylord Nelson in September 1969 and first celebrated on this day in 1970 to promote measures to preserve the environment and prevent destruction and impairment of our ecosystem of the only home we have until years off in the future we colonize Mars.
2. National Teach Children to Save Day—created by the American Bankers Association Educational Foundation and first celebrated on April 17, 1997 on a different day in April each year during April which is National Finance Literacy Month to promote in children the idea of starting to save early in life and continue that habit throughout their life.
3. 1971 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1970 was “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night on a run of 6 weeks in that position to join 18 other songs reaching number 1, one of which was awarded to Janis Joplin posthumously as the second artist to be so awarded. Here is a recording by Three Dog Night of “Joy to the World”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyI1OImD7ow The band was formed in 1967 and debuted at Whiskey-A-G0-Go and took its name from Australian Aborigines’ practice of sleeping in a hole on cold nights with a dingo. The band had 21 top 40 Hits and 3 Number 1 songs until it dissolved as a victim of the disco music surge in the 70’s and disbanded in 1976 to reunite in 1981 and with only two of the original members of the band, Hutton and Allsup still performing the band is still performing today.
        4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “redargue” which means to refute which a free press is prone to do when a government oversteps its bounds which sadly our MSM too busy lauding Biden and the BLM is loath to do.
5.   H and T Don’t Mix—celebrating the birth on this day in 1935 of Paul Chambers, a noted jazz double bassist player who despite fame and fortune and critical acclaim developed a proclivity for heroin and alcohol and after checking into a hospital for what he believed to be influenza was diagnosed as having tuberculosis probably brought on by his heroin and alcohol addictions and quickly went into a coma for 18 days, dying on January 4, 1969 at age 33.
    On this day in
  a.  1864 the U.S. Congress passed the  Coinage Act of 1964 which authorized the use of “In God We Trust” on all coins.

b. 1915 the German Army during the Battle of Ypres released 168 tons of chlorine gas from 5730 cylinders to drift with the prevailing wind into French lines which broke and fled in total panic and disarray from the oncoming green clouds.
c. 1944 in a glimpse into the future of warfare, the US. Air Commando Group in the India Burma Theatre used helicopters in combat for the first time using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters in search and rescue combat operations.

d. 1977 optical fiber was used to transmit telephone conversations for the first time..

e. 2016 the Paris Accords, designed to reduce carbon emissions but in reality, giving China and India two of the largest emitters of carbon a free carbon emitting pass, was signed. t Reflections on the use of poison gas: “So we went and climbed that long hill at Montreuil and got to the holy of holies, and were duly admitted. And sent in to an enormous room – yards of room – it was under the castle there, you know what these French castles are. And at the far end was this enormous table with officers dotted all around as though it was a stage set. So we trotted up, our knees shattering not knowing whether we were going to be executed as spies or not! And it appears they hadn’t had any real word about the gas attack and the effects. And they started asking us about it, ‘Were our respirators any good?’ And we said no, they weren’t, they were just little bits of wet cotton wool. And all those sorts of questions as they had no idea about what the gas attack was.” Beryl Hutchinson, a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, helped treat gassed soldiers. Afterwards, she was summoned to British General Headquarters.

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© April 22, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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